Charleston Southern isn’t in Charleston

Posted on November 25, 2008 by Sandlapper Spike

Not only is Charleston Southern not in Charleston, it’s not south of Charleston, either (unless you’re talking about the Charleston in West Virginia).  CSU is in Ladson, about 18 miles northwest of the Holy City.  Ladson is not exactly a suburb of Charleston.

That doesn’t prevent the school from emphasizing its connection to Charleston, however tenuous that connection may be.  The media guide, for example, has this fine example of glossing over the fact the school really isn’t in the city:

“the University is strategically located near Charleston, South Carolina, in the center of the modern growth patterns of the tri-county area. Students take advantage of the cultural, historical and recreational opportunities the city offers. Charleston is a city famous for its well-preserved colonial houses, famous gardens and plantations, miles of wide sandy beaches, and major fine arts events…”

CSU has been CSU since 1990.  The school was originally founded in 1964 as Baptist College, but as it got larger, the powers-that-be decided to change its name.  Part of this had to do with people confusing it for a seminary.  CSU (as Baptist) had been an NCAA Division I member for 15 years at the time of the switch, which occurred around the same time the College of Charleston became a full-fledged member of the division, leading to occasional confusion when the likes of ESPN or the AP reported scoring updates, as people mixed up the two schools regularly.  More than once a reference to “College of Charleston Southern” was made as well.  The national befuddlement has largely subsided now, however.

(I was a little amused to notice, though, that in CSU’s game notes there is a breakdown of the school’s alltime record under each of the school’s names.  The school recorded 285 wins as Baptist College, and has 207 so far as Charleston Southern.)

Charleston Southern (the school teams are nicknamed the Buccaneers, or the “Bucs”) has won the Big South tournament twice, but the first time the conference did not have an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.  CSU did go to the tourney in 1997, when it won the league tournament for the second (and to date, last) time.  Charleston Southern lost to UCLA that year in the first round.  Probably the most well-known CSU hoopster, at least in the Lowcountry, is longtime Charleston TV personality Warren Peper, who played basketball at Baptist College in the 1970s.

Although The Citadel and Charleston Southern are less than twenty miles apart, the two schools have had stretches of not playing each other that have lasted for several years at a time.  There were no games between the Bulldogs and Bucs from 1987 through 1992, from 1999 through 2001, and again from 2003 through 2004.  Part of this has been due to personality conflicts between various individuals, and part of it has to do with CSU’s home court situation (there is a chicken-and-the-egg aspect to the conflicts/court issue).

Charleston Southern’s on-campus “arena” is the CSU Fieldhouse, which according to a Wikipedia entry (why is there a Wiki entry for the CSU Fieldhouse?) seats 790 fans, and is reportedly the smallest home gym in Division I.  Now, to be honest, I think it can seat more than 790 (the announced attendance for the Bucs’ home opener against Furman was 846), but it is a really small gym.  Thus, CSU plays select “home” games at the North Charleston Coliseum, which seats over 13,000 in its basketball configuration.

As you might imagine, the Bucs never draw close to that many people for any of their home games, no matter the opponent (Clemson played CSU at the Coliseum about a decade ago; the game drew less than 4,000 fans).  I once went to a game at the Coliseum between CSU and Furman that could not have had more than 200 spectators in attendance, and that was counting the operations staff.  Tonight’s game should be a little better than that, but I would be surprised if more than 2,500 people are at the game.

However, the Coliseum is a selling point for the Bucs when recruiting (“see, if you’re good we’ll fill this arena with thousands of screaming fans!”).  What CSU really needs is a place to play bigger than its current home gym but not as gargantuan as the North Charleston Coliseum.  An arena with around 5,000 seats would do the trick.

The Citadel leads (!) the alltime series with CSU 18-13.  The Bucs have won five of the last six games in the series, but the one loss came last year at McAlister Field House, 76-73.  That game was typical of The Citadel’s season (poor defensive statistics across the board, heavy reliance on the three, etc.) except that The Citadel shot 50% from behind the line (11-22) and attempted (and made) a lot more free throws than normal.  Those two elements contributed to one of the Bulldogs’ two wins last season against Division I competition (late in the season, The Citadel notched its only conference victory, over Western Carolina).

Zach Urbanus went 5-6 from three-land, scoring 21 points, and the Bulldogs also got good games from Cameron Wells (15 points, 7 assists) and Demetrius Nelson (12 points, 8 rebounds in one of his last games before taking a medical redshirt).  Phillip Pandak made three 3-pointers, finishing with 11 points.  For CSU, Jamarco Warren was a force, scoring a game-high 22 points while making six 3-pointers and dishing out 5 assists.  Omar Carter added 17 points.  All of those players return for Tuesday night’s game.

This season, CSU is 2-2, with losses at Iowa (by 68-48; The Citadel lost at home to the Hawkeyes 70-48) and to the College of Charleston (at the North Charleston Coliseum).  The Bucs have defeated Toccoa Falls (a non-Division I school) and Furman, both at home.  The game against the CofC was an up-and-down affair, while the Iowa and Furman games were slower-paced.  I think CSU would probably like to play a little faster against The Citadel than it did against the Hawkeyes and Paladins.  CSU takes care of the basketball and shoots fairly well from behind the arc (and was 8-12 from that distance against Toccoa Falls, so it comes into tonight’s game confident in that respect).  The Bucs are only shooting 46.7% from inside the 3-point line, though, thanks mainly to a poor night against Iowa.  CSU has not been particularly good defensively (especially inside).

Warren is averaging 23.5 points so far this season and is red-hot from outside (64.5% from 3-land).  Carter is averaging 16.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per contest.  Freshman Kelvin Martin is a 6’5″ forward pulling down 9 rebounds per game.  He’s also in double figures in points (11.5).  The Bucs also have a 6’10” center, Billy Blackmon, who is shooting 68% from the field while averaging 7.5 boards.

Charleston Southern has lost a combined 42 games the past two years and would like to reverse that trend.  Losing again to The Citadel would be a bad sign, especially considering the Bulldogs have yet to show sustained improvement on defense and (except for the game against Cincinnati Christian) have been much more turnover-prone than they were last season.  That’s not to say the Bulldogs aren’t better than they were last season.  It’s just that it may be later in the year before The Citadel starts demonstrating that overall improvement by winning games.

However, if Nelson and Wells have good games, which I think is quite possible, and at least one other Bulldog chips in offensively, The Citadel has a decent chance of making it two in a row over CSU.  For that chance to become reality, though, the Bulldogs must control the game’s pace (in part by avoiding turnovers), do a better job defending the three, and contain the Bucs (especially Martin) on the glass.  Easier said than done.

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Seeing both sides of a mismatch on the same day

Posted on November 23, 2008 by Sandlapper Spike

The bad side

Well, the football game went about as expected.  I was hoping that Florida wouldn’t get to 70, but The Citadel really didn’t make that much of an effort to shorten the game (in terms of play calling).  On the other hand, scoring three touchdowns was a pleasant surprise.  Unfortunately, the Bulldogs went 1-for-3 on extra points.  Kevin Higgins is going to have to do something about the placekicking before next season.

The placekicking was the only negative from the special teams, which were otherwise solid across the board yesterday.  The defense was completely overmatched, but the offense didn’t do all that badly.  While there were three turnovers, at least none of them were converted by Florida’s defense into touchdowns.  In that respect The Citadel fared much better than South Carolina did the previous week against Florida.  It’s also worth noting that due to injury, The Citadel actually inserted its backup quarterback, Cam Turner, into the game before Florida replaced Tim Tebow.

From the strange-but-true department (I guess I’m channeling Jayson Stark here):  South Carolina QBs Stephen Garcia and Chris Smelley both failed to throw a touchdown pass against the Gators.  The same was true for highly-touted Georgia QB Matthew Stafford.  Wide receiver and former walk-on Scott Flanagan of The Citadel, however, threw a TD pass against Florida on only one attempt.

Also, I would say that losing 70-19 is better than losing 56-6.  My reasoning is as follows:  Florida outscored South Carolina by more than an 9-1 ratio, but only outscored The Citadel by a little more than a 3.6-1 ratio.  Advantage, Bulldogs.

The good side

The basketball game also went about as expected, and this was a good thing.  The Citadel was never threatened by Cincinnati Christian and pulled away down the stretch for a convincing victory.  CCU had no answer for Cameron Wells, who had a good game not only on the stat sheet, but in terms of letting the game come to him.  Zach Urbanus had a strong first half and a solid overall game.  The Bulldogs did a good job in this game of getting to the foul line and converting.  Getting their fair share of free throw attempts has to be a priority for the Bulldogs, especially when shooting foul shots is one of The Citadel’s strengths.

Speaking of that, Phillip Pandak got into the game late, and was almost immediately fouled.  I was rooting for him to make both foul shots, and he did.  By doing so he equaled his number of made free throws from all of last season.  He only had four attempts at the line last year, which was amazing, because he attempted 101 field goals during the course of the season.  Now this year in two games he has one field goal attempt and two made free throws…

The Citadel took care of the ball in this game, a welcome change from the previous three games, and the pace of the game was in line with where the Bulldogs want to be.  The Citadel allowed CCU to grab a few more rebounds than I would have liked, and didn’t defend the three-point shot in the first half as well as it should have (the defense on the perimeter noticeably improved in the second half).

It was the second, and final, game of the season against a non-Division I opponent.  Now it’s time to try to win a game against a D-1 foe.  The Citadel’s first opportunity to do so will come on Tuesday night at the North Charleston Coliseum against Charleston Southern, one of two Division I teams the Bulldogs actually beat last season.

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Room for improvement

Posted on November 15, 2008 by Sandlapper Spike

The Citadel basketball 2007-08, statistics and rankings/ratings of note:

RPI:  334 (fifth consecutive season finishing with an RPI of 296 or lower)
Conference wins:  1
Division I wins:  2
Points allowed per possession:  1.145 (last in Division I)
Points scored via the FT line per possession:  0.098 (last in Division I)
Opponents effective FG%:  51.3% (last in Division I)

Uh, ouch.  Other things The Citadel didn’t do particular well included shooting from inside the arc (41.0%, which was in the bottom 10 nationally), defending opponents shooting from inside the arc (57.5%, bottom 3 nationally), defending opponents shooting from beyond the arc (40.0%, bottom 12 nationally), rebounding (25.3 per game, bottom 10 nationally), and blocking shots (1.2 per game, bottom 3 nationally).

You get the idea.  Defending the post was not a strength.  The problems in the paint were exacerbated when Demetrius Nelson was lost for the season early in the campaign, which meant that the post players were exclusively freshmen, who were generally overmatched and overwhelmed by the opposition (especially physically).  This had a carryover effect to the terrible 3-point defense numbers, because the perimeter guys had to constantly help on the inside, leaving outside shooters open on a regular basis.

As a result, The Citadel was the worst defensive team in the country.

The lack of inside play also meant that the Bulldogs got very few easy baskets from in close, and had a decided lack of free throw opportunities.  This resulted in The Citadel being one of the nation’s least efficient offensive teams as well.  The shame of this was that it hid a couple of things that the team actually did fairly well, like taking care of the basketball (18.7% turnover rate, top 60 nationally) and shooting threes (38.2%, top 50 nationally).

The Citadel had one player, Phillip Pandak, who had 101 field goal attempts but only  4 (!) free throw attempts.  I doubt that there was another player in the country who took over 100 shots but only made two free throws.  Pandak’s line was an extreme example, but it was a teamwide problem, and one The Citadel needs to address.  The Citadel made only 238 free throws last season; its opponents converted 366.

The Citadel’s possessions per game rate of 65.5 was on the low side, and the team’s pace of play slowed down as the season progressed, which I think was a good thing.  I would expect more of the same this year.

On to this season.  In both the one exhibition game and the regular season opener (against non-Division I Grace Bible College), Ed Conroy played a lot of guys (12 in each game), so it’s hard to tell what his regular rotation is going to look like.  Obviously he’s going to rely on Cameron Wells, Demetrius Nelson, Zach Urbanus, and Austin Dahn.  The other players are all going to have a chance to make a positive impression (like Daniel Eykyn did against GBC).  The most interesting name (literally and figuratively) among the newcomers is Cosmo Morabbi, who got 19 minutes against Grace Bible College.  In the exhibition game the Bulldogs seemed to make a concerted effort to get the ball inside, with only 19% of its field goal attempts from beyond the arc, but against Grace The Citadel reverted to last season’s bombs-away philosophy, with 49% of its shots from outside (last year 44% of the Bulldogs’ FGAs were from 3-land).

The defense against Grace was not good, as Conroy noted in The Post and Courier‘s game article.  It was disturbing to see a non-Division I team like GBC, playing its first game ever against a Division I opponent, shoot better than 50% from the field.  The Citadel did outrebound the Tigers, but the Bulldogs won’t play a team with as little size as Grace for the rest of the season.  I also noticed the pace was a little faster than The Citadel may have liked (69 possessions), but that’s probably a one-game blip.

The Citadel goes on the road on Sunday to play its second regular season game, and Virginia Commonwealth will be a formidable opponent.  VCU played in the NIT last season and the NCAA tourney two years ago, when it upset Duke in the first round.  The Rams were an outstanding defensive team last season, leading the CAA in defensive FG%, steals, and blocked shots.  VCU led the nation in 3FG% defense; in one three-game stretch Rams opponents missed 28 consecutive three-point attempts.

Eight of VCU’s top nine players from last year return, including outstanding guard Eric Maynor (who two years ago bedeviled the aforementioned Blue Devils).  VCU, which will be playing its season opener, is favored to repeat as regular-season champions of the CAA.  The game is part of the Cancun Challenge, which has a format I am still trying to understand.  The bottom line is that The Citadel will play one game in Richmond, one game in Charleston, and two games in Mexico, all against pre-determined opposition.

I’m not expecting a win over Virginia Commonwealth.  I’m just looking for signs of development and improvement.  It may be tough to demonstrate that such advances have been made, however, against a team like VCU.

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